No photos. Not of Chemnitz at least.
Instead I went to Fulbright ETA orientation! Orientation itself was a great experience - I met amazingly talented and driven people and overall had a great time. It was like college orientation all over again. Except everyone there liked German and teaching too, so new topics of conversation had to be found. (Also apparently I have a very strong Chicago accent that I never realized I didn't have! Who knew?!)
We were just outside of Köln (that's Cologne to you non-German sprächige Leute out there) at a lovely resort.
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| A not too shabby view for breakfast! |
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| A quick snapshot of the gorgeous (and continually under repair) Kölner Dom. |
Needless to say, the Sachsen group got into being the fake rowdy students for each of the teaching teams. We were especially boisterous while pretending to be the Level One (first through fifth grade) students. We made basic grammar mistakes, asked random questions, and channeled our inner six year olds.
I had a great time teaching and I'm already feeling really optimistic about my school and teaching in general!
So, to recap: Orientation was awesome. The people at orientation were awesome. This year will be awesome.
You know what's not awesome: the Deutsche Bahn.
According to Google Maps (the font of all mapping knowledge) and Deutsche Bahn's own website: it's a long way from Köln to Chemnitz.
A long, long way. About 7 hours by train. And the trains don't even go directly across the country, since the fastest trains are the ICE (InterCityExpress) trains, which means that they usually go through large cities, like Leipzig or Nuremberg.
I was all set to get to Köln. I had decided to go a day early, see the sights, and crash in a hostel before meeting the bus to the convention center in the middle of nowhere. My Kindle and my iPod were charged and ready. Enormous bottle of mineral water and snacks were bought.
The trouble started when I tried to buy my ticket to Cologne. I wanted to buy a Bahn 50 card since that would give me half off the exorbitant ticket price. I paid for the card with no problems, but when I went to buy the ticket, my Bahn card wouldn't work right and for some reason, I couldn't get the reduced rate.
Even though I was seething, I had to catch my train to Leipzig, so I sucked up the ticket price and got onto the train.
Although everyone on the train was angry, at least there was an option in the works to reach Cologne in time. But then we learned that the faster train was also broken and we were going to have to wait for the other one.
We were all dumped off on the curb at the Madeburg station as we waited for the train. Which was running late. And then we had to change tracks twice before our train pulled up.
It was a tiny Interregional Express (read: slow train) with only 4 cars. The Germans, being pushy as always, barged their way onto the train. I was forced to climb into the last car along with a business woman from Berlin, this young guy, and six bicyclists all of whom were pissed that so many people were getting on the train.
There was only standing room throughout most of the train and I used my suitcase as a makeshift seat while I hung out in the bicycle storage area of the train. I quickly learned as the Berlin businesswoman struggled to understand what the bicyclists were saying that they were from Swabia near Tübingen! Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear the nearly indistinguishable Schwäbisch! It almost made the whole I'm-sitting-on-my-suitcase-when-I-paid-an-extra-5-Euros-for-a-reserved-seat-thing bearable.
And then one of the adorable old Schwabian men started talking to me because I was helping the Berliner understand his Schwäbisch and he told my German was excellent!
So even though my trip ended up taking an extra two hours, I got to Cologne safe and sound. At the hostel, I found a wild pack of Fulbright Americans and I had a great time getting to know a bunch of them.
According to Google Maps (the font of all mapping knowledge) and Deutsche Bahn's own website: it's a long way from Köln to Chemnitz.
A long, long way. About 7 hours by train. And the trains don't even go directly across the country, since the fastest trains are the ICE (InterCityExpress) trains, which means that they usually go through large cities, like Leipzig or Nuremberg.
I was all set to get to Köln. I had decided to go a day early, see the sights, and crash in a hostel before meeting the bus to the convention center in the middle of nowhere. My Kindle and my iPod were charged and ready. Enormous bottle of mineral water and snacks were bought.
The trouble started when I tried to buy my ticket to Cologne. I wanted to buy a Bahn 50 card since that would give me half off the exorbitant ticket price. I paid for the card with no problems, but when I went to buy the ticket, my Bahn card wouldn't work right and for some reason, I couldn't get the reduced rate.
Even though I was seething, I had to catch my train to Leipzig, so I sucked up the ticket price and got onto the train.
Everything was going well - other than the awkwardness of having to ask someone to move out of my reserved seat and the four train transfers - until about halfway through the trip when the ICE reached Madeburg.
The conductor came over the intercom and announced that since the train was needed in Berlin they were going to ask all the people headed to Cologne to get off the train at Madeburg, so they could send the train back.
They promised that there would be two train options: one that would be leaving in 20 minutes from the Madeburg station and other that would be there in an hour to take the passengers to Cologne.
Although everyone on the train was angry, at least there was an option in the works to reach Cologne in time. But then we learned that the faster train was also broken and we were going to have to wait for the other one.
We were all dumped off on the curb at the Madeburg station as we waited for the train. Which was running late. And then we had to change tracks twice before our train pulled up.
It was a tiny Interregional Express (read: slow train) with only 4 cars. The Germans, being pushy as always, barged their way onto the train. I was forced to climb into the last car along with a business woman from Berlin, this young guy, and six bicyclists all of whom were pissed that so many people were getting on the train.
There was only standing room throughout most of the train and I used my suitcase as a makeshift seat while I hung out in the bicycle storage area of the train. I quickly learned as the Berlin businesswoman struggled to understand what the bicyclists were saying that they were from Swabia near Tübingen! Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear the nearly indistinguishable Schwäbisch! It almost made the whole I'm-sitting-on-my-suitcase-when-I-paid-an-extra-5-Euros-for-a-reserved-seat-thing bearable.
And then one of the adorable old Schwabian men started talking to me because I was helping the Berliner understand his Schwäbisch and he told my German was excellent!
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| Happy Seal of Approval Indeed! |
Needless to say, I assumed my troubles with Deutsche Bahn were over. During orientation, I forgot about the annoyance of 5 train transfers and 2 delays.
Then came the trip back. (At least this time, the other Fulbrighter in my city, Alex, was with me!)
Instead of going north, this train was going south through Nuremberg and after an hour layover, going back up to Chemnitz. Which was fine, since Alex was planning on meeting up with people she had studied abroad with in Nuremberg and I was thinking more along the lines of lunch and soaking up the free wifi at the nearest Starbucks.
We climbed aboard the train with all of our baggage and were headed off to Nuremberg. And then our train decided to act up. And by act up, I mean, the cars came uncoupled.
Obviously we had to stop.
For over an hour.
And we missed our connected train.
And then we had to wait another hour and a half for our next train.
Which took 4 hours to get to Chemnitz.
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| Plus, the uphill walk home pushed me into a state of wordless rage. |
I have no idea what it all means and it made me vaguely depressed. Also I openly recant part of my Hemingway hater-ade (except for the annoying fanboy thing; I totally standby it).
So that was my weekend. And I start work on Monday! Eeeeeek!
All My Love,
Your Humble Blogger
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